Canadian govt considering suing gun mfrs

Posted by David Hardy · 22 October 2005 01:01 PM

The Toronto Star reports that the Ottawa government is considering suing US gun manufacturers. (If link doesn't work, go to Star and hit search button for Ottawa and sue. It's free subscription, but I get tired of the process. Relevant portions of the article are in the extended entry.

This would pose some interesting choice of law problems -- esp. since it would have to be a suit under Canadian law (since US law now bars it), over the making and legal sale of a firearm in the U.S.. Not to mention questions of personal and subject matter jurisdiction. In any event, it'd been a good time for any US manufacturer to "disinvest" in anything Canadian.

Canada is looking into ways to sue U.S. gun manufacturers for the spread of illegal weapons into this country, the Toronto Star has learned.

It's just one part of a multi-faceted crackdown on gun crime, due to be unveiled by the end of November.

The package will follow months of unusual violence in Toronto that came to be known as the Summer of the Gun.

Of the 61 homicides so far this year, 41 have involved firearms, a record number.

The policy will also be seen as another shot by Prime Minister Paul Martin's government across the bow of Canada-U.S. relations.

Government sources told the Star yesterday that Canada will be looking into "every legal option" to stem a tide of crimes involving weapons that make their way into this country illegally from the United States, whether they're sold through the Internet or smuggled across the border.

That includes possible suits against U.S. manufacturers, launched either in the United States or in this country if the firm has assets here as well, the sources said. Though no precise estimates are available, Toronto police have said repeatedly that almost half the gun crimes committed in Canada involved illegal, U.S. weapons.

3 Comments

Isn't that soooooo like the Canadian leadership. They may be more culturally competent in a sophisticated international cosmopolitan sense but they are still subjects where as us Americans are free sovereign citizens.

Would not the government of kanukistan have to have given import permits to all these firearms in the first place? So what would the suit be about? "We gave import permits to these illegal firemarms from the United States"?

The Libberl gouvernment de Canada has an egg-on-face problem: they have spent well over a billion dollars on a gun registration scheme that doesn't work. That money came from the Canadian Defense forces, which are now down to a few coastal patrol boats and 4 batallions, maybe. The nation is defenseless, and couldn't withstand any sort of military threat from abroad.

So, trying to shrug off the horrible AdScam scandal, the Liberals march bravely forward, to the beat of one hand clapping, and try an antigun tactic that we not only repudiated in our courts, we just banned the idea forever.

It's sad, really, every Canadian I know is a delightful person, and most of them turn their heads in shame from the actions of their government.